welcome back to the big picture i'm john harbin coming up in this half hour working out strengthens your heart but it could also sharpen your mind new research suggests that regular exercise can help stave off dementia more on that in tonight's geeky science and according to republicans and their cronies in the oil industry extending the keystone pipeline will singlehandedly solve america's jobs crisis in reality it'll put communities across the country at risk and do nothing to grow the economy tell you why and i still take. welcome to your take my take live our phone lines are now open so if you want to share an opinion make a comment ask a question live on the air give us a call at two zero two nine zero four twenty one thirty four we also take video calls a few if you. send us

a video call we'll toss it up in fact let's go to our first video question for the night jeff and pasadena california. i just want to get your take on suburban sprawl you know those rows and rows of cookie cutter hows that we see up across the u.s. to what extent do you think that's a problem. so that's that's an interesting question urban sprawl cookie cutter houses. i think you know i think it's a problem in that we're not necessarily doing it smart i was off the air for you know week or so of last week the week before i went to germany for annual conference of a group of us who do international relief work with an organization based there and traveling on the train across germany. every of their household it seems has a solar panels on their roofs they they have fabulous mass transit systems you can get pretty much anywhere i mean we do here in d.c. actually i you know i've lived here three years and i first first time since i was sixteen i did notice a car but i think that the whole idea of urban sprawl came out of the

promotion of the car that you know as the goodyear and the car companies and from you know the fraud they perpetrated on los angeles and onward and and it doesn't really work that well anymore we need to do some serious urban planning mark intra a mark thanks for calling what's on your mind there don't you know i just want to say i really feel terrible what's happened in boston in the middle of a lot of people who've responded so little to it but i also heard people say you know this is ok if it happens in iraq but it shouldn't end up in boston i just think it's sort of the room where you thinking ows would be you would produce more empathy for what's happening if you don't assume your arc you know that's an excellent point mark for all of us in america as horrified as we are and you know you look at and talk with people in boston and they'll talk about how people in the city of boston are reacting you know with shock or grief or just kind

of stunned and you know just imagine that that's been going on for ten years now in baghdad just as regular stuff all over afghanistan i mean you know george bush opened the gates of hell of those countries and those aren't the only places that are there are places i've i've worked in countries i was i was in and. years ago six different explosions went off when i was there so anyway there is that you know we will take an awful lot for granted our safety and security in the united states and we should we should get a sense of that john in fairfax a job thanks for calling it a good draw if you want you to make more of a point of the for the financial industry. building to make money and through money from people to make money and also there's a new way to get through you know or or to get people and do you can't remember a more effective interesting point john thank you for the call we have gone from

making things in this country i mean that's how countries become wealthy is they take their raw materials and apply human ingenuity and labor to them or through the use of machines and create things we end up making things and you make things you end up with value. and when reagan came into office about a third of our economy was making things and about seventy percent of our economy was banking which is free is full stuff i mean you know somebody has got to make the mortgages and things but you know basically it was boring and now about eleven percent of our economy is making things we've lost two thirds of our making things of our ability to create wealth and it's been replaced by hostlers moving money around making literally sometimes a million dollars an hour billion dollars a year simply by scheme and stuff off the top. and so now of the what's called the fire industries finance insurance realist and real estate these industries now have

become thirty three or thirty four percent of our total g.d.p. which is knots it's absolutely nuts so i'm with you we need to we need to do something about that jake in minneapolis say jake what's a. good sum from a so your take weather modification. is really what their possibilities are what can these things do and what should we be worried about who's actually controlling them those are the government figures or private industry or is it leaders to just and my understanding is that the harp the these are very large antenna rays that are there in. typically very very distant places that pump a lot of very very very low frequency energy into the into the ground or into the atmosphere typically into the ground and the reason why is because it's the only way to communicate was sat with submarines early that's my understanding of it and

so i you know whether they're being used to modify the weather or not i know there are there are people who are concerned about that i've read the websites i just i don't know i'm skeptical frankly i think that it's probably got more to do with you know company countries wanting to communicate with theirs with their with their submarines gary in new jersey gary what's up you know you really enjoy you sure you enjoy it so much question about this report that was done. the torture in guantanamo and that is the you know is really you need to mislead decided agreed that there was torture going on there what do you think should be done about the officials involved with that and how far up the chain should it go. it's a good question thank you kerry. i'm personally of the opinion that if we don't it's at the very least have a serious official investigate. and this is this was close i mean

a such as was on this thing in a former republican congressman former number two or three guy in the bush defense department. and he went into it saying you know it's going to take a lot to convince me that there's any torture going on here like that. but i think that we need to now that it's out now that it's been said now that it's being spoken at the very least people like john yoo and jay bybee who are kind of the architects of these things should no longer be being bowed down to and. the people who committed the crimes and i'm not talking about the grunts on the ground. you hold those folks accountable you know the people who did the waterboarding and whatnot but by and large they're doing their jobs. and they're and they've been told that it's right. but the alberto gonzales's on the dick cheney is in the george w. bush's the don rumsfeld's of the world. they knew this stuff it's real.

and if they gave it any serious thought at all and you could you know colin powell you can you can see how uncomfortable he was made by all this and larry wilkerson his assistant you know will speak about this fairly fairly openly i think that it's time to have. frankly if not investigations trials and i think that this is also the legacy of our not having gone after iran contra and all the way back to the crimes that were committed in one nine hundred eighty by cut a deal with the iranians to hold the hostages so that reagan could win the in one thousand election and going back to nine hundred sixty eight with richard nixon cutting a deal with the vietnamese so that hubert humphrey would lose and those things should have been prosecuted these things should be prosecuted to prevent this from happening in the future terrell and chicago terrell thanks for calling thanks for watching. i say i will call you out good when your take about like that currently in america like you think you have to do with their private prison the what economy

i'm sorry. our american economy oh are you going to you're. ok in those words the relationship between private prisons and our economy what what we're seeing and what first of all what we're seeing is that historically in the united states and other countries around the world i mean the kind of basic definition of a functional democracy in a functional economy is that you have two basic economies that operate parallel to each other you have what's called the public economy and what's called the private economy the public economy is all the stuff that we all do for each other because it's the stuff that we do you really require something as large as a government to do. you wouldn't want to you know go out and rent an army and you wouldn't want to you know be a minister in a city with acme widget companies senior vice president of city administration you

know the. there's reasons why we do these things and there are also natural monopolies there are there are things that it's hard to to great you know who owns the air who owns the water how many water pipes can you have run into your house how many electric lines can you ave right in your house what these are natural monopolies. so in those areas where you have natural monopolies or in those areas where the commons are involved the police the fire the schools the water the you know it's appropriate that that be the arrival of or the public economy then of the other and you have the private economy private economy is making stuff you know running businesses doing t.v. shows and making phones do it all that kind of stuff it's really not the job of government it's the job of private industry you know with reasonable regulation so that the public interest is served but that's the job of the private industry here's the problem to your question about private prisons prisons always historically have been and always should have been part of the public economy they

never should have become part of the private economy because we're as soon as prisons which should be here for the purpose of that for the for the very simple purposes of separating bad people from the rest of us and rehabilitating people when they can be rehabilitated so they can be reintegrated back into society when prisons which have those purposes are turned into profit opportunities then what you have is companies out here lobbying for longer laws longer sentences taking away judicial discretion and all kinds of terrible consequences and we're seeing it right now in america it's why we have more part in my paid why we have more people in prison than any other country in the world it's nuts one quick question steve in pennsylvania hey steve. why are you doing to me every i hear you just fine got a little less than that quickly. ok question. the framing of the second amendment debate and why is no one really looking at what the ballot

and it's about trying. to throw. out of the american well i don't part of the problem has been that the the you know the supreme court has been all over this you know different positions on this over the last couple of decades but i'm personally a bit of the opinion that the second man was put into place for two reasons one because armies during times of peace are dangerous and we shouldn't have them is the reason why congress can only appropriate money for two years for armies and to to preserve the slave patrols themselves and we need to have some conversation about that didn't get your calls and i give us a quiet try back next week and keep the video questions coming it's easy just grab your phone record your question. or comment and then e-mail it to us your take my take at g. g. mail dot com we'll be right back.

clear image of iraq after. twenty day taxi trip through the country. clear evidence from north to south. of iraqi tragedy. after the war waiting for peace. talks e t. let me let me i want to know what oh let me ask you a question. here on this board as we're having this debate we have our knives out. to do is this really just about staying there to get here in this situation would be an ideal way to talk about the surveillance.

the international and in the very heart of moscow. and screw news this week many victims of foreclosure fraud finally started to receive their small portions of a three point six billion dollars settlement with the nation's largest banks toure's but when many of them rushed to the bank to cash in their modest payments

from the solvent they were told that the checks couldn't be cash due to insufficient funds some people have waited up to three years for their money and many their homes of long ago been sold after illegal for closures which all just adds insult to injury for these foreclosure victims who are in the new york times the mishap occurred because russ consulting firm selected to dole out the settlement checks forgot to move the three point six billion dollars into the central account of the new national bank. from where the checks were issued. better reserve issued a statement to assure the public that ross has subsequently corrected the problems of the flood will continue to monitor payments closely so not only the banks toure's buy their way out of foreclosure fraud criminal charges but it looks like they'll also get away with numerous counts of passing bad checks too big to fail means too big to jail and these banks are too big to exist let's break up these

financial and serve prosecuting the criminals who rob. it's thursday let's get geeky on slowing down dementia right now in america more than half of all people eighty five years of age and older suffer some form of dementia or memory loss but after years of research in countless studies brain researchers have discovered that there are ways to boost brain power and slow down the progression of dementia and memory loss so what can you do right now to live a long and healthy life without having to worry about the devastating effects of dementia down the road according to dr r. kramer a neuroscientist at the back of an institute for advanced science and technology the university of illinois the best thing that we can do to stave off dementia. it's to exercise in fact research shows that exercise is the best thing you can do

to help your brain forget the drugs and vitamins exercise cramer conducted a study in which he scanned the brains of one hundred twenty older adults half who had started a program of moderate exercise forty five minutes of exercise a day just three days a week. after a year m.r.i. scans of the study participants brains showed that for the aerobics group the volume of their brains have actually increased on the other side those in the control group who did not exercise actually lost one point five percent of their brain volume he's finding support earlier research on animals in which rodents who exercised had to have a number of positive physiological changes actually had new brain cells stronger connections between brain cells and increased blood supplies to various regions in the brain research researchers also say that mental exercises while not as

effective as physical exercise can also help keep your brain active and may also help to stave off dementia were games like crosswords and word searches other brain games like so those are great ways to keep your brain active finally there's even research that suggests that going out with friends and being social can help delay the onset of dementia one study that looked at the social lives of eleven hundred adults over eighty years old for twelve year period found that those of busy social lives were half as likely to develop dementia as those who participated in fewer social activities so if you want to live a healthy life stave off dementia keep your brain working at its fullest potential start exercising do the daily crossword in the roll call newspaper and get out there and socialize. just.

it's the good the bad of the very very. really ugly good nuns on the bus a road tripping group of activists nuns took the fight for health care access to rick perry's doorstep on wednesday joining with thousands of other texans at the state's capital to protest the governor's refusal to accept obamacare as medicaid expansion spreading their own unique message of social justice and economic equality the nuns have been traveling across the country for the past year protesting republican austerity policies that they see as contrary to the to the teachings of the catholic church sister simone campbell one of the nuns who participated in the protest remarked jesus said to care for the sick to care for those who are left and folks at the margins those are where the low wage worker good work is let's just hope gov good hair rick perry can see the bible the same way you do. the bath pat robertson surprised on tuesday the seven

hundred club host offered a truly bizarre explanation for the marriage equality move check this so. i can history of the french revolution you for and there was a thrust spurred by the writings of a group called the illuminati to destroy the family we have here a debate over same sex marriage but is it really just a boat marriage or does it go far beyond that to destroying the traditional family and building a country without. the illuminati is using same sex marriage to steroid matter telling theory. and the very very ugly dennis johnson the cold majority leader of the oklahoma house of representatives sought itself in hot water yesterday when he used the. medic's slur during his speech in support of

a law that would allow oklahoma retailers to sell products at a loss take a look. that's what you do as a small business and then you get the reward of six cents people come back to you they like what you do they like the service they get and they don't ask me they might try to jew me down on a price that's fine you know what that's free market as well johnson realized his mistake and tried to make amends sort of. i apologize to the jews. they're good small businessmen as well unbelievable and very very. exxon mobil one of the most profitable companies in the world that regularly pays no u.s. income tax had

a pretty horrible tar sands oil spill in arkansas last month most people have heard bits and pieces of the story but here's what you probably haven't heard from the corporate media first off you got a glimpse of the pipeline rupture and spill because of citizen bloggers and journalists like drew barnes who posted this on you tube but you haven't seen much coverage from the air of this happy that's because just like with the b.p. halliburton blowout in the gulf the f.a.a. imposed a no fly zone over the oil spill. you are not allowed to see what's going on exxon mobil has even hired local police for security and they're doing a pretty good job of keeping reporters away according mother jones reporting a documented numerous instances of people being threatened with arrest for just trying to ask questions or take pictures outside. second with all the money and profits from that oil pipeline exxon mobil doesn't have to pay into the federal

fund a clean up oil disasters including this one why because this stuff isn't oil it's stuff that the prefer press refers to as tar sands oil from canada but it's actually legally known as diluted in the us as we call it by two men in britain. and according to a one nine hundred eighty law pushed through and passed by our bought off congress at stuff that comes to canada the diluted by two women not being oil isn't subject to the tiny taxes that are imposed on regular oil to pay into a fund to help cover the costs of spills another reason why the diluted by tumen tar sands oil will be coming down the keystone x.l. pipeline will be even more profitable for the big companies who plan to refine it on the texas coast and then ship that refined diesel and gasoline that they extract

from it to england mexico brazil and china over places we by the way will get to keep all the poisons left over from the refining process and we get to pay for all the cancers from them expect cancer alley down south to grow substantially finally to add insult to industry or to injury we get one of the more heavily oil industry funded members of congress oklahoma republican congressman mark wayne mullen who recently recently said this to us i think it should be it should be actually patted on the back. for the way they handled this yes it was horrible yes we don't like to see it but they handled it they did a great job and this clueless congressional newbie repeats the lie that the keystone pipeline carrying more of those tar sands oil to the gulf coast is when it's finished it will reduce our dependence on middle eastern oil try to tie the

wonders of exxon mobil to the bombing in boston this genius. i mean would we rather buy oil from the middle east the sponsors the acts like we see at the marathon that we saw just yesterday i guess the congressman got out ahead of john king and c.n.n. and no one who blew up the pressure cookers in boston aside from that stupidity pipeline will not reduce our dependence on foreign oil a bit because all that slurry from canada is going to very very profitable refineries on the gulf coast where they can then refine and export their refined gas and diesel overseas last year this nation's number one export was not t.v.'s or jeans or computers we invented all those things but we don't make them here anymore it was gasoline and diesel fuel. the big oil companies are exporting gas and diesel from the us like crazy keeping the prices for us here hi and the profits for

them even higher and now they want to export even more more and by the way let us keep the cancers in the oil spill risks of all that stuff coming out of the smoke stares we've been scammed from that nine hundred eighty logs in the oil companies from pain in to clean up funds for canadian tar sands oil to blocking our press from covering their spills to our members of congress being bought and sold we've been scammed and all of this to keep alive a nineteenth century fuel system is destroying our planet. it's time to leave behind fossil fuels altogether portugal portugal just produce seventy percent of all their powerful power needs from renewables we can do that too we are still the nation the put a man on the moon then event of the transistor and the integrated circuit that led

the world for centuries if we can just get the bought and paid for politicians out of the way and get our press to actually cover the horrors of tar sands oil and the reality of climate change we just may be able to once again have the j.f.k. vision of the city on the hill we should even take a lesson from the dozens of nations that have been nationalized their oil in like norway use the money to send their kids to college it's time to step up and speak out and that's the way it is tonight thursday april eighteenth two thousand and thirteen don't forget democracy begins when you get out there get active tag you're it. the british.

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international airport in the very heart of moscow. i welcome to the kaiser report by max kaiser.